


Loved You All Along

by imitateslife



Category: Victor Frankenstein (2015)
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mid-Canon, Mutual Pining, Romance, skinny love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 20:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12261168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imitateslife/pseuds/imitateslife
Summary: It wasn't in the big moments that Igor fell in love with Lorelei, nor did Lorelei show her love in big ways. But it was always there - even when they were two circus freaks to whom "love" was an impossible dream.Written for the Victor Frankenstein October Challenge.Day 1: Your OTP in Love





	Loved You All Along

It was not in those graceful, death-defying moments when he realized he loved her, but rather, when Lorelei landed safely on the ground and walked through the circus with a gentle confidence that the Hunchback only wished he had. She would smile; others would smile back. But this smile was a polite thing – a courtesy Lorelei extended to all. She was generous that way. Daring and bold in the air; generous and sweet on the ground.

Sometimes, he dared to imagine he was sweetest on him.

Her smile seemed to alter. That glazed look of civility fled her eyes when she gazed upon him. Something sparked – he would swear he saw it spark – and he told himself that this was because they were friends. She was his only friend in the whole universe and for that, he loved her.

But he also loved her for agitated way she swung her black plat behind her shoulder as she ignored Lord Barnaby one moment more to speak with _him_ , the Hunchback, even though he was nothing and no one and she ought to have been irritated with him for keeping her from conversing with the boss but she would say things like, “Even _Lord Barnaby_ must learn some patience” and his heart would balloon.

He loved her for the tiny groans and sighs that passed her lips long after nightfall and they walked back to their separate caravans. “It’s nothing,” she would insist as worry creased his lead-painted brow. “Just some aches and pains that come with the job.” And he would offer remedy, shyly, and she would blush and tell him that “One day, I might take you up on the offer” before bidding him goodnight and departing. Anyone else would have shown disgust that the freak would touch them – touch them perhaps too intimately, even if it was all for scientific purpose. But not Lorelei. She would smile and her top teeth would sink into her lower lip as if she was really considering it and just on the cusp of saying “yes”.

He loved her for the books she would give him. Fat medical tomes, filled with illustration and instruction. Again, she’d bite her lip and fiddle with her plait and watch him with greedy excitement at his joy – as if she lived to make him smile. She was the only one. And of course she was forever apologizing – “You deserve better. One day, I’ll furnish you a full library. You can pile your books on Rafferty’s cot – they’re worth more than he is” – and he would swear she was saying “You are worth more than he is” and he would stammer and flush and call her “Miss” as if they hadn’t been friends for years. He edged near tear sometimes. If he wasn’t so grimy, he’d embrace her. Instead he could only breathe, “Thank you” over and over again.

If he wasn’t such an embarrassment – if he was strong and handsome or even just healthy – he would tell her he loved her, but he hadn’t been, so he’d kept silent. For years. Aching. Wanting. Longing. Loving.

Alone.

Until the pink blush of morning warmed Igor’s back. He lay upon his stomach in a bed in the Baron Bomine’s mansion as Lorelei applied salve to his reinjured shoulder. So much had changed since those days in the circus – he had a name, and until a few days ago he’d had another friend. A benefactor. He still thought of Victor Frankenstein with mingled love and hate; pity and anger. But today he wasn’t thinking of Victor. He was thinking of the other clowns kicking him in the jaw and Lorelei offering to look at his bruises for him. He’d refused. Thought himself too far beneath her for concern. Laying on her bed, which smelled faintly of her – sweat and sawdust and fine, floral perfume – he wondered if much had changed at all. He was an invalid. Broken by Finnegan’s men and reinjured. He had lost all he gained except his name and was again nobody. And despite this, Lorelei rubbed salve upon his back in gentle motions. The lotion was thick, greasy. Beneath it, however, he could feel her hands. They’d surprised him when they made love what seemed like a lifetime ago – rough, callused. She looked like a lady – to him she always had – but she’d confessed in the dark one night that she was still the same circus girl she’d always been – and  a little more. Perhaps he was still the Hunchback and a little more, too. He winced as her hand brushed a sore spot. He heard her murmur “I’m sorry” and then there was  pause – oddly weighted – and he wondered if he ought to say more, but instead Lorelei spoke.

“I had a foolish dream when we were in the circus together,” she told him. Her voice was little more than a hum “That one day, you’d let me take care of you the way to always took care of me.”

“Lorelei-“ his voice broke. “- I did what any doctor would do for you. I-“

“No, you didn’t. You were always so much more to me than a doctor. More to me than a friend. I’ve always felt safe with you, as if you are the one soul in whom I can confide and whose confessions I will hold as dearly a my own.”

“You can’t have always felt this way,” he said feebly, protesting and turning his head to face her. “I wasn’t wort the straw on the bottom of your shoes.”

“No, you weren’t. You were worth so much more than that. Especially to me.”

He had never before considered with any seriousness that Lorelei might have loved him in return. A stab of guilt, more painful than the ache in his spine made Igor shut his eyes tight. He had thought – perhaps because everyone else did – that she had only desired him now because he was handsome. That guilt twisted in his chest as he realized all the little acts of love she’d shown him all along. He opened his eyes to look at her. Lorelei’s face was soft and warm. The light radiating from her eyes was more than animal lust for a handsome man and more than tender pity for  a wounded friend. How long had she been looking at him like that? All along? He swallowed.

“I always wanted to be enough for you,” he confessed. “And I never thought I could be and then for a split second I _was_ and now…”

His voice trailed off. Lorelei wiped her hands upon a towel and touched his face with her work-worn hands.

“And now, you are more than enough for me. You will walk again- and run and dance – and we shall put all of this behind us and create a life. But now, you are also tired. Rest, my love.”

She brushed his sweat-damp hair from his face and kissed him on the lips. Softly – oh so softly – and the little popping sound as they broke apart brought a smile to Igor’s lips. _My love_. He liked the sound of that better than Hunchback, better than Freak, better than Igor. He sighed and settled back against the pillows as Lorelei began to murmur lullabies to him to help lull him into a peaceful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I figured Igor/Lorelei wasn't popular enough to get a lot of love for this challenge and since they're one of my (several) OTPs, I thought I'd start off the challenge with them!


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